Apple Pickin'

Only kids with really tall dads get to actually sit in the tractor...

We had it all planned out. We were going to go apple picking with FOS friends on Tuesday morning. Landon was excited! Tuesday morning came. Landon had a weird little cough, nothing bad. Then he choked on some phlegm and threw up his entire breakfast. So that squashed apple picking for the day. I was not sure if he had an intestinal illness on top of his snotty nose. ANYWAY...

Saturday we decided to do a re-do. Landon was super excited to go "apple pickin'" as he said it. We did have tons of fun, and decided this year to do all the other activities as well that we skipped last year because Landon was too small to enjoy them. Good move on our part! We got to do a corn maze, cow train ride, petting zoo, bounce house, watch pig races, and big 4-wheeled bike things, along with picking Cortland and McIntosh apples, which are both fairly yummy right off the tree! Landon took care of the apples on the low branches, and Austin took care of the accessible high branches, and I was the one that ventured deep into the branches to find the unpicked apples. There were tons of people there since it was a Saturday, so there were lines for everything, but not so long that it deterred us from doing stuff. 

Pointing off into the distance to another tractor

Petting "kid" goats

The first time around, there were only cows outside the petting zoo to pet. There were goats, sheep, and alpacas inside along with thousands of flies. There were also baby ducks and chickens that reminded Landon of Aunt Net's chickens. He loved the animals! In fact,  he insisted we visit the animals one more time before we left, and a HUGE ox was in his pen. He had big horns that poked through the pen and I touched them! He was pretty docile although Landon was scared to pet him. 

Landon's favorite attraction- the cow train

As soon as Landon saw the cow train, he knew he had to ride on it! It was a bunch of plastic barrels cut and fixed on wheels to look like cows, pulled by a tractor. Every little boy's dream. Since he is so little, he wanted mom to come. I wanted to come so he didn't jump out half way through. Unfortunately, there were no cars daddy sized, so I was nominated to accompany him on his tractor cow train ride.

Getting ready to go! SO EXCITED!

Here is the whole train

Having the time of our lives!

After the cow train, we ventured into the corn maze. Fortunately, they had a map we could follow to know where to turn within the maze. It was really cute they had different pages of a little children's story along the route to keep kids' interest. Landon just wanted to ride the cow train again, so he spent some time whining about not being on the cow train, and some more time saying, "NO! This WAY!" but we all made it out alive.

Landon consulting the map

Austin had to help Landon finish the maze- because he was running every way except out.

We were waiting in a much longer line to ride the cow train a 2nd time when the pig races started up. We knew we wanted to see that, so we fled the cow train line and that did not sit well with Lando. He wanted to ride the train! We explained that pigs were going to be racing but that didn't seem to excite him as much as it did the rest of the crowd. That is, until the pigs were let loose. They were very fast! Landon loved watching them, but lost interest after the first race and went off to ride the 4-wheeled bike things with Austin.

The pigs are off!

Bike station- Landon loved the little tractors!

Landon told Austin to go faster!

After doing our fill of the other activities, it was time to do what we came to do... apple pick! We got to take another wagon ride- pulled by a tractor- out to the apple orchard. That made Landon a happy boy, especially since we sat in the front wagon right in front so he could watch the tractor the whole time.

Happy to be in the tractor!

 We decided to pick 1/4 peck of Cortlands and a 1/4 peck of McIntosh. Both varieties were crisp and a good mixture of sweet and tart. Landon took care of all the lower apples and loved putting them in the bag. All too soon our bags were full.

Of course, we had to sample the apples to make sure we liked them!

A nice girl came by and offered to take some pictures of all of us!

It was a momentous occasion because Landon is smiling for the camera!

Reaching for the apples up top

Departing the orchard

It was a perfect day. The weather was very mild, the activities were fun, the apples were delicious, and it brings me so much joy to see Austin and Landon having so much fun together! Hooray for All Seasons Apple Orchard!